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spent0904
Fast
Food for a Weary Stranger
Text:
Luke 10:38-42
Date: Pentecost 9
8/1/04 motrola game downloader
The
Lord visited Abraham in the strange personages of three weary strangers.
As when any unexpected guests arrive things need to move in a hurry.
“Abraham went quickly to Sarah.” “ Quick! Make
cakes.” “Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf” which
his servant “prepared quickly .” In today's Gospel too
there is the sound of quick scurrying in the kitchen of Mary and
Martha's house. Jesus had come and Martha “was distracted with much
serving,” that is, she was hurrying, maybe a little frustrated that
she couldn't be in the other room listening with Mary. There are,
after all, two kinds of hospitality. There is the preparation of
food and accommodations on the one hand. But it is also hospitality
to receive the message the visitor brings. “I will surely return
to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have
a son,” the stranger said to Abraham. Though there was a little
nervous laughter, Abraham received the Word, and the Word, as you
know, was surely fulfilled. “One thing is necessary,” Jesus said
to Martha. There was nothing wrong with the kitchen prep, you see.
It was just that “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not
be taken away from her.” It is, after all, more important to hear
the Word of the Lord. In fact such hearing must happen prior to
any service being acceptable to the Lord.
Throughout
his Gospel St. Luke identifies many as “hearers” of the Word. In
the early Christian church, this was a technical term for a catechumen
or one becoming a Christian. One becomes a Christian by receiving
the gift of faith. And one can receive this work of the Holy Spirit
in only one way—through the Word of the Gospel, as St. Paul said
it, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”
[Romans 10:17 (ESV)].
Now,
not everyone knows or believes this, that faith is itself a gift
and working of the Holy Spirit. They confuse faith with knowledge
or thinking or feeling. They conclude that faith is a decision made
on our part. Therefore, they say, infants should not be baptized
because infants cannot know what they're doing, that is, cannot
“believe.” The Bible, however, speaks of faith as a Divine gift,
the working of God in a person's inmost being. Infants are given
faith through Holy Baptism. A believer is still a believer whether
he is asleep or in a coma or even when he or she is confused or
mistaken.
Now
when faith is confused as a decision I make it changes the worship
life. On the one hand, where faith is the gift and working of the
Holy Spirit through the Word, the Divine Service is just that, faith
feeding on the Word preached and the sacraments administered. But
when faith is confused as something we do or come up with, then
the worship service becomes nothing more than an evangelism rally
designed to manipulate emotions. They sing songs like, “every time
I FEEL the Spirit moving in my heart I will pray.” Martha, Jesus
said, was all worked up, “anxious and troubled about many things”
so that she couldn't think straight. She was too busy “doing” when
the one thing needful, the main thing, the first thing has nothing
to do with our doing at all, but with God's doing for and to us.
In this way this little Mary/Martha story is an apt picture of the
Church at worship. Worship is not primarily something I do or offer,
but must be, first, my passively receiving what God does through
his Word, namely, creating and strengthening faith in the heart,
as today's Alleluia Verse has it from Isaiah 55, “so shall my word
be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed
in the thing for which I sent it” [Isaiah 55:11 (ESV)].
For
this reason when St. Luke uses the word “hearing” he most often
means “hearing in faith” or “believing.” Here the Christian disciple
will recall the parable of the sower where the seed is sown on different
types of soil. That which falls on the path is quickly taken away
because it has no root. “And as for what fell among the thorns,
they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked
by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does
not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing
the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit
with patience” [Luke 8:14-15 (ESV)]. One can easily see Martha and
Mary illustrating this parable; the one distracted by her anxieties,
the other simply hearing the word. In relating this incident St.
Luke is simply reiterating what Jesus had said of the parable of
the sower, “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has,
more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks
that he has will be taken away" [Luke 8:18 (ESV)].
The
one thing needful is the gift Jesus has come to bring: release from
anxiety, fear, sin, sickness and death, in other words, salvation.
The more one realizes that salvation is God's gift and not the result
of anything we do, the more we will love and exercise ourselves
in the simple receiving of his gifts like Mary, quietly, attentively
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